The reconstruction of the Greek Orthodox church at the World Trade Center — which was destroyed on 9/11 and has been completely redesigned by Santiago Calatrava — is back on track and the exterior is scheduled to be ready by this this Sept. 11, with the doors opening for the first service in November.

The Saint Nicholas National Shrine at the World Trade Center is being rebuilt on the elevated Liberty Park, at Liberty and Greenwich, and while construction was stalled out in 2017 due to a lack of funding, its supporters, including Gov. Cuomo and John Catsimatidis, recently brought the campaign back to life.

“We re-started construction this past August, and despite the pandemic, we fully expect that the exterior will be complete by the Twentieth Anniversary of September Eleventh,” wrote Dennis Mehiel, the chair of the Friends of Saint Nicholas. “We also plan to perform the religious ceremony of ‘Opening the Doors’ on November 2nd, with the participation of the worldwide leader of Orthodox Christianity, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.”

The building’s most distinct feature is the marble curtain wall, which Mehiel said is from the same vein as the marble that built the Parthenon 2,500 years ago. When lit from inside, the building will glow (see the rendering below). The building will host both the parish and the Saint Nicholas National Shrine, the latter of which will be more “outward looking,” with interfaith and ecumenical programming.

The members of the parish have been worshiping these 20 years at the Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Brooklyn, and the worship life of the parish will continue in 2022 when a priest is installed.

“Although Saint Nicholas was always a small congregation, I suspect that many around the country and even the world will want to be ‘virtual’ members and support the work of Saint Nicholas,” Mehiel said.